US Presidential Facts – Closest Presidential Election – by Electoral College Votes

The Popular Vote is not what actually elects our President. The President is elected through a process we call the Electoral College.

Here are the top 10 closest Presidential Elections (after the 1800 Presidential Election) by the difference in the Electoral College Vote totals (listed by Electoral College Vote Difference {Presidents total votes vs. total vote of all the other candidates running in that election}, Election Year, Elected President):

• -93  – Election of 1824 – John Quincy Adams

• 1 – Election of 1876 – Rutherford B. Hayes

• 5 – Election of 2000 – George W. Bush

• 23 – Election of 1916 – Woodrow Wilson

• 35 – Election of 2004 – George W. Bush

• 36 – Election of 1848 – Zachary Taylor

• 37 – Election of 1884 – Grover Cleveland

• 39 – Election 1812 – James Madison

• 46 – Election of 1836 – Martin Van Buren

• 52 – Election of 1856 – James Buchanan

Sidenote #1: In the Presidential Elections of 1800 and prior, each elector was granted two votes (one to be used to vote for President and the other to be used for Vice President). When Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied, in the election of 1800, with the same number of Electoral College votes ,the election was sent to the House of Representatives to be decided. Burr was supposed to be running as Jefferson’s Vice President (the way it was supposed to work was the one with the most Electoral Votes would become President and the one with the second most Electoral Votes would become Vice President). The next election (the Election of 1804) the rules were changes so that the President and Vice President were on separate ballots.

Sidenote #2: In the Presidential Election of 1824 (the first one on our list), none of the candidates received a majority (over 50%) of the Electoral College Votes, as required by the Constitution. The top three candidates, therefore, were sent to the House of Representatives, where John Quincy Adams prevailed over Andrew Jackson. That makes Andrew Jackson the only person to lose the Presidency after having won the Electoral College Vote.